THE PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES
EAST LAMPETER TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER, PA
Michael Connor | Mechanical
Adviser: Dr. James Freihaut
717-668-4752
General Building Data
Building Name: The Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences
Location: East Lampeter Township, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Building Occupant: The Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences
Occupancy: Building 1 Administration, Building 2 Education
Total S.F.: 332,000 ft2
Stories: 2
Total Project Cost: $45 million
Project Delivery: Design-Build
Issued for Construction: May 2015
Completed Construction: August 2016
Project Team
Architecture
Architecture: The project scope was to renovate and refurbish a Bosch electronics distribution center. The center was comprised of an office building housing some sort of Bosch administrative facilities coupled with a manufacturing and distribution warehouse. The Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences sought to utilize the vast warehouse as state-of-the-art immersion classrooms for their students to be as experienced as possible before entering the field. The nursing classrooms include a fully equipped OR able to simulate most of the procedures of a normal hospital, a recreated elderly man’s apartment for exercises in elderly assistance, several patient bays stocked with artificial patients, and a central nurse control station with monitoring systems for the individual patient bays. Some features include various collaboration rooms occupying the central open region of the education building, a “curved monumental staircase” at the entrance to the academic building, and several skylights above gathering spaces in the academic buildings to shed natural light on busy college students.
Applicable Codes: 2009 IBC, 2009 IPC, 2009 IFC, NFPA 13, ANSI A117.1
Zoning: BP – Business Park, As Noted by The Planning, Zoning and Building Department in East Lampeter Township
Historical Requirements: Not applicable.
Building Enclosure
Building Facades: Curtain walls were designed for both the entrance to the administration and academic buildings with tempered, tinted and insulated glass components. The typical façade elements for the rest of the building incorporates the existing pre-cast concrete panels with standard insulation on most of the exterior walls with 1-hour rated 8” CMU blocks encompassing the fire stairs.
Roofing: The roofing system utilized is the existing dark EPDM membrane on 3” of insulation from the existing manufacturing facility. There are several skylights on top of the academic building use clear low e insulated glazing resting on parapet sections of the inner roof.
Sustainability Features
Skylights: Large skylights provide a good source of natural lighting for the main spaces of the education building.
Energy Recovery: Three heating/cooling energy recovery units were pre-purchased and utilized to treat 2520 cfm of air supplied to the building.
Primary Engineering Systems
Construction: The Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences was a Design-Build project with the goal of renovating an existing distribution center into a two-story academic facility with the repurposing of an attached office building. The construction manager for the project was High Construction Company. The project started construction in May 2015, and completed construction in August 2016. The total cost of the project was approximately $45 million.
Electrical: The utility provider for the PA College of Health Sciences supplies 250kV to a pad mounted utility transformer which converts the supply into 277/480V supplied directly into the buildings' distribution system. Where 120/208V power is required, a three-phase, four-wire, dry-type transformer is utilized to step down the power supplied to less intense systems. Boilers, rooftops units, food preparation systems, and other larger pieces of equipment utilize the 277/480V distribution. Other less strenuous systems like receptacles and lighting fixtures utilize the 120/208V distributed power.
Lighting: In an effort to be as efficient and sustainable as possible, the College decided to rely primarily on LED's to light the interior spaces with a minimal amount of fluorescent lights utilized for specific necessities.
Mechanical: Due to the existing conditions of the property, a large majority of the mechanical equipment utilized in the project was repurposed from the original building design. A total of fifteen Daikin Packaged Rooftop Units along with three Daikin Energy Recovery Ventilators were redesigned to serve the two buildings. The rooftop units utilize digital scroll compressors and refrigerant piping circulating R134a to condition the air supplied throughout the building. The energy recovery units rely upon desiccant wheel systems to recover the heat energy within the exhausted air. Each building relies on two condensing boilers utilizing natural gas to supply hot water to the buildings' respective mechanical systems.
Structural: The existing footings and foundations were utilized in the design of the new project, along with much of the exterior wall systems. Building One, which now houses the administrative offices of the college, saw little changes in structural design with the major update being the roofing support systems for the addition of smaller mechanical equipment. The addition of the second floor to Building Two utilizes W shapes for beams and girders with composite metal decking. A typical bay on the second floor is 40'x40' with (5) beams that are W21x44 with 20 shear studs spaced at 8' O.C. with W30x124 girders with 42 shear studs. Steel joists and roof decking make up the roof. There are (7) joists equally spaced in the bay. The existing foundation is made up of multiple 7'-0"x7'-0"x1'-5" spread footings which support the HSS columns. There are concentrically braced frames in the North-South and East-West directions and moment frames in the East-West direction which make up the buildings' lateral force resisting systems.
Engineering Support Systems
Fire Protection: The buildings' existing wet pipe sprinkler systems were reused for the purposes of this project. Each fire stair was constructed using 10" CMU with a fire rating of 2 hours. Also included in the fire protection design are a fire alarm system, and smoke detectors within ductwork to notify the rooftop units when to close the system off.
Transportation: Each building houses one elevator shaft. Building one houses two fire stairs with a third, floating stair highlighted in the main lobby. Building two relies upon six fire stairs with another grandiose staircase at the entrance to the academic space.
Academics: Faculty and administration were consulted during the design process in order to obtain suitable spaces for specialized curriculum. A fully functional OR room was designed for students to authentically practice intense procedures within a controlled environment. A simulated elderly person's apartment was created to educate students on the skills necessary for home care. Artificial patient rooms act as classrooms for prospective nurses to rehearse day to day procedures. One-way glass separates these patient rooms from control areas housing professors and workstations to monitor the students' progress. Nursing stations are present throughout the hallways for another added piece of authenticity.